Shims are common and long known in the art for use in situations where it is desired to level construction members or otherwise make two construction members meet exactly or otherwise align. This out of alignment or lout of level situation is a common occurrence as a result of warped building materials, foundation shifts, inexact measurements and the like. A shim is used to fill the gap or cause an out of alignment construction element to get in alignment. A shim has a load bearing function in that it must support the construction element sufficiently to keep it in its aligned or leveled orientation. A wedge shim will be driven between two construction members just far enough to put the members in the proper orientation. Then, the rest of the shim may stick out and be an aesthetic eyesore. The protruding portion is typically then cut or broken off to make the finished surface completely flush. This can be a nuisance or in some cases impossible, especially in situations where the construction elements being aligned are delicate and easily breakable during this process.
There have been attempts to provide shims that are scored to provide natural break points with clean lines.
There also have been attempts to provide shims made of materials other than wood to provide varying degrees of strength and breakability.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,163,255 titled CONSTRUCTION SHIMS, discloses, “a woodworking machine comprising one or more sets of parallel rotating blades position in or above a flat worktable surface such that multiple sets of parallel grooves of a controlled depth can be cut into a wood block moved over the table surface and above, below or between rotating blades, The product produced by the machine is of a unitary construction comprised of multiple wedge shaped shims held together by a breakable membrane between the shims.” Here, the shims are wooden and configured such that they are readily breakable from each other, i.e., a ‘set’ of shims, but each individual shim is not scored such that it is adjustably sizeable for individual use and the manner of making them would prevent the ability to make a shim of the size taught here.
In another example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,230,446 titled FRANGIBLE WEDGE SHIM FOR CONSTRUCTION, discloses, “a plastic wedge shaped shim for leveling which is prescored to enable protruding section to be broken off. Parallel, straight, scores are formed at regular intervals on the top surface of the shim. These scores form teeth enabling stacked shims to interengage one another when one is placed inverted on another. The underside of the shim has recesses configured such that there exists a zone of constituent material which has equal localized thickness measurements along that portion of the length of the shim wherein scores and the recess formed in the underside of the shim are in overlying relationship. In an alternative embodiment of the invention, the recesses form cleats for resisting sliding or other displacement of the shim.” Here, the idea of scoring a shim to enable breakage along a predefined line is introduced and using a material other than wood is introduced. However, this shim is also inherently larger than contemplated by the disclosure here as it is an object to allow the shims to be interengaged by inverting upon each other to form a larger leveling support. This is a key feature of this invention and requires the opposite surfaces to be configured to create an overlying, interengageable relationship. Moreover, the formed cleats here, a sawtooth configuration would hinder the operation of the shim taught by the instant disclosure where a very small space, with fine tune leveling is addressed.
In another example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,108,901 titled SHIM, discloses, “shims comprising a mixture of plastic and natural fibers originating from a wet processed cellulose fiber based waste source material include an elongate body that tapers down from a thick end to a thin end. A series of ridges and grooves or valleys are formed in at least one face of the body traversing the width of the body from a point adjacent the thick end to a point beyond the longitudinal mid-point of the body. The base of the valleys each form individual break lines preferably spaced apart at predetermined intervals. A raised rim or ridge preferably extends about the outer boundaries of the face in which the ridges and grooves are formed.” Here, again, the idea of a material other than wood is implemented and a series of ridges or grooves, a pre-scoring feature, is implemented to form individual break lines. However, here, once again, the shim is contemplated to be a normal size wherein there is a raised rim or ridge extending around the outer boundaries of the shim in order to assist with ease of deployment and preventing the scored ridges to hang up on the elements to be leveled. If this configuration were implemented in a smaller shim taught here, where the outer boundary would necessarily comprise a greater percentage of the overall shim area, the breakage lines would be hindered rendering them almost useless.
In another example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,802,344 titled AFFIXABLE PLASTIC SHIM discloses, “a plastic shim that has a hole for fixing the shim to a wide variety of objects. The shim may also be breakable for use with smaller applications, while also being usable for larger applications without breaking. In a preferred embodiment, each of the breakable sections has a hole for a screw or nail, so that each of the breakable sections is separately affixable.” Here, there is a contemplation of use in smaller applications. However, the shim described in this patent is not necessarily wedge shaped for use in leveling applications, but rather a shim used as a spacer and is generally not applicable to the use described in the instant disclosure.
Finally, in another example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,229,323 titled, HINGE ADJUSTING SHIM, discloses, “a hunge adjusting shim, the function of which is to facilitate and expedite the proper hanging of a door upon a frame or similar support.” Here, the contemplated shim also embodies a scored to provide lines of breakage, but is generally the same width and shape as a common door hinge and used specifically therewith. It is substantially wider from side to side than it is longer from thin end to thick end. The shim described here and the shim as taught in the instant disclosure would not be interchangeable and would each, if configured as the other, destroy each functionality.
None of the foregoing references, alone or in combination, teach the salient and proprietary features or construction of the present disclosure, and as such, fail to be useful as a small shim with a handle, useful in fine-tune leveling and/or alignment applications as described herein. For example, scoring to provide breakability tends to weaken the overall strength of shims and affects the slide ability to slide into the gaps the shim is intended to fill. In one reference, this is overcome by providing an outer rim. In the small application described herein, this solution would destroy the functionality as it would make the shim of the size described herein less breakable than needed and we would be back to a situation where the shim would need to be cut or broken and likely destroying the fine construction elements being aligned.
The present disclosure teaches several embodiments that provide a very convenient, inexpensive, small shim useful in fine-tuning leveling or alignment applications, such as in (but not limited to) fine millwork, decorative trim and molding applications. The present disclosure also teaches embodiments for deploying such a small shim through the use of an attached handle that, if not for the anticipated breakage points employed, would stick out and otherwise destroy the functionality, but without, in such a fine-tuning small deployment, would make the shim almost impossible to manipulate into a desired spot.